Want to Buy a Greek Island? Greece is Selling!

Jul 4, 2010

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BuzzBuzzHomeJuly 4, 2010

For the price of a downtown Toronto home, you could own a Greek Island!

Maybe Muskoka is too buggy for you? Maybe you don’t love hanging out in the BC mountains for your holidays? Maybe you just want to escape it all, and head to your own private island? No matter the reason, now is the time to buy!

All you need is a few million bucks, and you could own your own paradise. If you don’t read the news, then you wouldn’t know that Greece is in the midst of a major financial crisis, and needs to raise money to pay off some debt. As such, they are selling, or leasing, entire islands. Heck, you can even get your hands on part of Mykonos!

According to The Gaurdian:

“Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.

The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece’s top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Potential investors also looking at property on the island of Rhodes, are mostly Russian and Chinese. Investors in both countries are looking for a little bit of the Mediterranean as holiday destinations for their increasingly affluent populations.

Greece has embarked on the desperate measures after being pushed into a €110bn (£90bn) bailout by the EU and the IMF last month, following a decade of overspending and after jittery investors raised borrowing costs to unbearable levels.

The sale of an island – or convincing a member of the international jet-set to take on a long-term lease – would help to boost its coffers. The Private Islands website lists 1,235-acre Nafsika, in the Ionian sea, on sale by private interests for €15m. But others are on offer by private owners for less than €2m – less than a townhouse in Mayfair or Chelsea. Some of the country’s numerous islands are tiny which could barely fit a single sunbed.”

This brings up thoughts of living like a James Bond Villan. Or, Sir Richard Branson. Or, Barclay brothers. Or, why not get married like Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.